While the work of W.J. Phillips, who painted the cover of yesterday’s menu, is well known (or at least well documented) today, today’s artist, Gordon Gillespie, is not. One web site speculates that he may have been a staff artist for Canadian Pacific as some of his paintings were reproduced in the Canadian Geographical Journal with the note that they were “courtesy of Canadian Pacific.” His paintings of Canadian Pacific hotels and steamships were also published by the company as postcards.
Click image to download a 1.3-MB PDF of this menu.
This painting is quite a departure from hotels and ships, especially since Simpson Pass is only reachable on foot. This and other paintings shows that Gillespie was quite accomplished, so may have done many landscapes that we haven’t seen yet. Continue reading